Farming implements such as planters and drills are employed for implanting seeds and the like in agricultural fields. Planters and drills include a frame having one or more sections, with each section supporting multiple row units of farming material applicators, which are configured to apply, for example, seeds to a field as the implement is moved across the field by a work vehicle such as a tractor. The seeds or other products may be stored in one or more bins mounted on or pulled behind the implement. These farming implements or planting implements often include systems for additionally applying granular or liquid fertilizer, insecticide, or herbicide to the seed bed. Seed application rates, in terms of, for example, seeds per lineal meter traversed, are adjustable by the operator for different crops and different growing conditions. A desired application rate, e.g., farming material per acre or per lineal meter, etc., having been established by the operator or by a prescription map, and the implement adjusted to that rate, is desirable that the implement steadily continues to apply farming material such as seeds, fertilizer and insecticide or herbicide at that pre-determined or pre-governed rate. If excessive seed is applied, expensive seed will have been wasted, excessive down time incurred reloading the bins more often than should have been necessary, and plants will be crowded together, oftentimes resulting in weaker and not as well nourished plant systems. Moreover, if too little seed is applied, a smaller harvest than anticipated will be realized. Similarly, deleterious results may occur if other product is not applied at the expected rates, too much of any product may even damage or kill the seed or seedlings, while too little may leave the plants undernourished, in the case of too little fertilizer, or unprotected, in the case of too little insecticide or herbicide.
It has been discovered that uniformity of application of granular products may be enhanced by the use of low pressure air, the air being useful for propelling seeds or granules through tubes to the soil and for promoting seeding of seeds and granules in fluted rolls, pocketed drums, and like devices used for distributing and metering farming product. There are multiple planting and seeding systems sold by Case Corporation, for example, their 955 Early Riser Parallel Front Fold Trailing Planter, the 4012 Concord Air-Till Drill and 2300 Air System; their 900 Series Early Riser Plate Planters, their Soy Bean Special Drills, such as a 5400 or even their 5300 conventional grain drills and the like.
Agricultural planters or implements typically comprise a transversely elongated mobile frame that is conventionally towed behind a tractor or other farm vehicle. These planters include a plurality of row units that are spaced apart on the frame for dispensing fertilizer, seed, herbicides and insecticides to the ground as the implement concurrently moves with the vehicle or the like. In larger agricultural implements, as many as 24 or more row units may be connected to the frame. The spacing between adjacent row units varies as is dependent upon the particular planting operation. Moreover, the amount and size of the particular material which is to be dispensed by the implement or agricultural planter will vary depending upon ground conditions, the climate, the crops desired, geographical location and even if particular portions of the field require more or less of any of the particular material including seed than other parts.
In some of the planters or implements, each row unit may contain an individual bin or hopper for holding the seed or other particulate matter which is to be dispensed. In many of the agricultural planter implements, dry product such as fertilizer is dispensed to the ground or the soil of the field through a metering device which keeps the material flowing while metering the flow. Generally, fertilizer precedes the seed and in the most prevalent embodiment of, for example, Case Corporation, is placed about two inches off the side of the seed bed, while herbicides follow the seed and go on top of the seed bed after the furrow has been closed. Accordingly, in the direction of travel, the front bins normally hold fertilizer, while the smaller rear bins hold herbicides and/or insecticides. In the instance of seed delivery, it is essential that the right amount or quantity of seed be dispensed at particular predetermined locations. Moreover, at certain locations, because of soil conditions, it may be necessary to dispense more or less fertilizer or herbicide and insecticide as historical conditions dictate field yield can be deleteriously affected by too much or too little. Thus, the delivery system for the farming material for the agricultural or planter element must be capable of adjustment even while the implement is moving across the field.
One of the major difficulties with dispensing of farming material is that because of slippage and the like, different quantities of material may be dispensed unnecessarily. Heretofore, the amount of fertilizer, herbicides and the like including the timing of seed planting has occurred due to direct linkage of the applicators to the wheels on the mobile frame. This linkage is usually by an elaborate chain drive through transmissions which affect the rotation of either augers, a fluted roll or other rotating mechanical metering device. In the instance of liquid, for example, a liquid fertilizer, a trailing tank (such as the Case Corporation "Concord" tank) allows for metering of the liquid fertiler by speed of a peristalic or piston pump, again by changing sprockets or the like in chain drives from the ground wheels. While this scheme is very workable, in fields that are other than ideal, wheel slippage and the like does not permit a uniform or desired rates of material dispensing upon the field, again often affecting the field yield. Moreover, and as is the general case, the amount of material to be dispensed during a particular working of a particular field is generally unchangeable without modifying auger or wheel sizes, adjustments of bin openings, fan or blower speed in the event of particulate transport, pump or pressure changes and the like with openings with fluted rolls and the like. Generally, the operator of the farm machine must stop, make those adjustments for a particular part of a field if that is what is required.
Slippage and the like can be accounted for by altering the kind of drive for the different parts of the planter which control the output of the various farming material. For example, slowing down the rotation of the seed drum may still maintain the proper spacing of seeds being planted at their correct distance regardless of wheel slippage. The same is also true of auger or fluted roll rotation for adjustment of hopper or bin output.
Generally, in modern day tractors, the cab includes an electronic display or control units sometimes referred to as a tractor or combine core system, which puts control of the machine and farming implement at the operator's fingertips. The electronic control unit can directly control the various aforementioned drives with regard to the agricultural planter in situations where they are not driven directly by chains and transmissions from the implement's ground wheels. However, because of the number of bins and hoppers and the like on the agricultural planting implement, control commands to the various devices on the agricultural planting implement, and connected to the cab as by a bus or the like, requires updating at a very high rate (e.g., once every 50 milliseconds for each one of the bins or hoppers, etc.). This tends to overload the bus and make control of the amount of farming material dispensed by the applicators associated with the planting implement impractical from the remote cab, at least with today's existing processors.